EckhartTolle writes that "A new heaven is the emergence of a transformed
state of human consciousness, and a new earth is its reflection in the physical
realm."

And .In reading Tolle's A New Earth, he states that "A significant
portion of the earths population will soon recognize, if they havent already
done so, that humanity is now faced with a stark choice: Evolve or die. A still
relatively small but rapidly growing percentage of humanity is already
experiencing within themselves the breakup of the old egoic mind patterns and
the emergence of a new dimension of consciousness. What is arising now is not a
new belief system, a new religion, spiritual ideology, or mythology. We are
coming to the end not only of mythologies but also of ideologies and belief
systems. The change goes deeper than the content of your mind, deeper than your
thoughts. In fact, at the heart of the new consciousness lies the transcendence
of thought, the newfound ability of rising above thought, of realizing a
dimension within yourself that is infinitely more vast than thought. You then no
longer derive your identity, your sense of who you are, from the incessant
stream of thinking that in the old consciousness you take to be yourself. What a
liberation to realize that the voice in my head is not who I am. Who am I then?
The one who sees that. The awareness that is prior to thought, the space in
which the thought or the emotion or sense perception  happens."

Neuroanatomist Jill Bolte Taylor had an opportunity few brain scientists
would wish for: One morning, she realized she was having a massive stroke. As it
happened -- as she felt her brain functions slip away one by one, speech,
movement, understanding -- she studied and remembered every moment. This is a
powerful story about how our brains define us and connect us to the world and to
one another.

Enlightenment must be lived here and now through this very body or else it
is not genuine. In this body and mind we find the cause of suffering and the end
of suffering. For awakening to be an opening into freedom in this very life, the
body must be its ground.

Embodied enlightenment is not about special psycho- physical
accomplishments, mastering the yogas of inner fire, fulfilling sexual tantras,
or developing a rainbow body. Yes, certain Tibetan lamas can sit naked in the
snow at 18,000 feet and generate sufficient heat to melt the snow in a
twenty-foot circle around their bodies. And Catholic saints have demonstrated
stigmata and miraculous healing powers. "But these powers are not the true
miracle," said the Buddha. "Awakening to the truth is the miracle." Embodied
enlightenment is about living wisely in your particular body, as it is, on this
day, in this amazing life.

Western Buddhist meditation master and nun Pema Chodron calls this
understanding "The Wisdom of No Escape."

*It is helpful to realize that being here, sitting in meditation, doing
simple everyday things like working, walking outside, talking with people,
eating, using the toilet, is actually all that we need to be fully awake, fully
alive, fully human. It's also helpful to realize that this body that we have,
this very body that's sitting here right now in this room, this very body that
perhaps aches, and this mind that we have at this very moment, are exactly what
we need to be fully human, fully awake, and fully alive. Furthermore, the
emotions that we have right now, the negativity and the positivity, are what we
actually need. It is just as if we looked around to find out what would be the
greatest wealth that we could possibly possess in order to lead a decent, good,
completely fulfilling, energetic, inspired life, and found it all right
here.*

Enlightenment flowers not as an ideal, but in the miraculous reality of our
human form, with its pleasures and pains. No master can escape this truth, nor
does enlightenment make the vulnerability of our body go away. The Buddha had
illnesses and backaches. Sages like Ramana Maharshi, Karmapa, and Suzuki Roshi
died of cancer in spite of their holy understanding. Their example shows we must
find awakening in sickness and in health, in pleasure and in pain, in this human
body as it is.

How do we touch this body of life, the joys and sorrows of it? An embodied
awakening neither denies nor reviles the body, nor does it grasp and mindlessly
indulge in pleasures. In embodied awakening we become present for the life that
is given us, respectful of what the Tibetans call "this precious human form."
Tsong Khapa, the Tibetan master, taught: "This human body is more precious than
the rarest gem. Cherish your body; it is yours for this one time only ... a
thing of beauty that passes away." Such a respectful presence allows the life of
our body to be blessed.